Call for Articles: Lost and Othered Children in Contemporary Cinema

Call for contributions to Starlight and Shadows: Images of Lost and Othered Children in Contemporary Cinema. [tentative title]

Seeking original articles for an edited collection about lost and “Othered” children in contemporary cinema (from 1980 to the present). In contrast to traditional portraits of sweetness and light, there is a large body of cinematic works that provide a counter note of darkness to the more common notion of the innocent and pure child. These films depict childhood has as a site of knowingness, despair, sexuality, death, and even madness. Starlight and Shadows explores this filmic imagining of the dark side of childhood.

Lost children are involuntary wanderers who are victimized, exploited, abandoned. Children who are “Othered” are forced to the fringes of childhood, are ostracized, ignored, victims of colonization, or part of Diasporas. These children navigate their way through the world living in the shadow of happy families, in murky or threatening environs, or living a form of placelessness. They must depend on their wits or, in some cases, on otherworldly influences. They negotiate a darkness that negates the Romantic view of childhood innocence. Submissions to Starlight and Shadows can include, but are not limited to, depictions of children negotiating race, gender, class, mental illness, forced migration, superstitions, peer pressure, crime, or other social and material conditions in which the film constructs a child character positioned outside the romantic notion of the child.

Essays that take a child-centric approach, interrogate the idea of the Western romanticized child, or that draw upon multi-disciplinary theoretical frameworks including psychology, film studies, literature, women studies, and queer studies are encouraged. Contributions should be academic in nature and follow MLA documentation.

Contributors should send a 200-500 word abstract, or, if complete, the full essay, a short biography, and complete contact information to Debbie Olson, debbieo@okstate.edu
Deadline for abstracts is August 1, 2010. Full essays are due no later than December 31, 2010.

cfp categories:

african-american

american

childrens_literature

cultural_studies_and_historical_approaches

ethnicity_and_national_identity

film_and_television

gender_studies_and_sexuality

general_announcements

humanities_computing_and_the_internet

interdisciplinary

journals_and_collections_of_essays

popular_culture

postcolonial

science_and_culture

theory

twentieth_century_and_beyond

By web submission at 04/03/2010 - 13:27

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